To the best of my memory we only got 2 magazines at our house when I was a kid---The Reader's Digest and Farm Journal. I would go to the short items below the Book Section in the Digest and read those. ( The Farm Journal would turn me on more only after having goats. ) Did anyone else ever get the Reader's Digest magazine?
MY mom and dad gave me a subscription to RD in 1964 and I kept renewing until sometime in the middle 90s.
We would get ours from the magazine stand. I enjoyed all those "short items" that Nancy mentioned. Another feature that RD would occasionally include was biographical sketches of notable foreign-born Americans famous for their contributions to Literature, the Arts, and Sciences, entitled "The Norwegians Among Us" or "The New Zealanders Among Us", etc. Hal
My mom subscribed to Reader’s Digest and National Geographic, and any others she wanted, we picked up at the magazine stand. When I was little, we had a Greyhound Bus station on the Main Street of Sandpoint, and they had a large magazine stand with all kinds of magazines, as well a comic books. So while Mom was checking out the gardening selection, I was looking for Roy Rogers, Rex Allen, and Lash LaRue comic books. We kids in the neighborhood all got some different comic books, and so we would read them and then trade with each other, for comic books that we didn’t have ourself. I enjoyed reading the Reader’s Digest and looked forward to the new ones each month, and I also loved browsing through the National Geographics when they came. We also had the Saturday Evening Post; but I am not sure if we subscribed to that, or if it was one that Mom picked up at the bus station when we shopped there for magazines. I remember seeing the one that had the picture of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth on the front, and lots of pictures of the event; but I don’t remember which magazine it was in......maybe Newsweek ?
One year in grade school (5th grade rings a bell) we had an assignment to read several magazine articles of our choosing, and turn in reports on each. Since we only got those two magazines, and I had no transportation, I summarized the summaries from other magazines from the Reader's Digest for my assignments. She didn't say anything. She would never have believed the Farm Journal: "How to Sell Your Hogs for More Money?" or "Understanding the Mechanics of High-Yield Soybeans"? .. I don't think so. It wasn't fair. That's my excuse anyway, and I'm sticking to it.
As a child, my family subscribed to the Reader's Digest, the Saturday Evening Post, and I think a couple of farming magazines. I sold Grit, as did my brother before me, but that wasn't considered a magazine at the time. However, my grandfather owned an IGA store so we'd end up with a lot of magazines that hadn't sold by the end of the month, minus, the top half of the cover because that's what he had to send in for credit on unsold magazines. We got a lot of paperbacks without covers, and a whole lot of comic books, too.
My grandparents subscribed to Reader's Digest. I enjoyed reading some articles but mostly looked at the pictures. My grandmother always worked the puzzles if I remember right. She was pretty good at them too.
Didn’t have any magazines growing up but started subscribing in the sixties until the late eighties when I dropped it. Nine years ago started getting the large print RD. Now my wife can no longer read the large print, I suscribe to an online RD because the kindle print addition can be enlarged to a huge size. I no longer read the magazine but my wife does.
Bill, is your story about the old couple and the house published somewhere? If not, you should send it in. Do they still have the short story sections in the Reader's Digest? @Bill Boggs
I don't know, Nancy but RD only publishes unlifting, positive stories, I think. Anyway that's one out of hundreds, none of which is good enough for publication. I'm too old to publish. I write because I can't do much else so I play around with different stuff.
My step folks didn't subscribe to any magazines, mainly because my step mom wore the "Coke Bottle" type glasses (very thick) due to numerous eye surgeries she had and couldn't read any magazines. As for me (us) we have subscribed to Farm & Ranch Living and, thru our Pro-Rodeo Hall of Fame membership, get Pro Rodeo Sports News. My wife has a box full of old National Geographic's magazines that, someday, will look thru. We aren't really a magazine couple, but do love to look at our Farm & Ranch Living magazines.
"I Am Joe's Liver" Fascinating reading. Also "Humor in Uniform" and the other joke sections. We received a lot of magazines. My mother was British and her family would send bundles of their publications. The Mirror, The Star, etc. There were topless centerfolds in some of them...this was back in the 60s. Second to Popular Science, my favorite magazine was Spencer's Gifts. I loved that thing. Lots of interesting cheap stuff, 99% of which likely fell into the False Advertising bucket.
I subscribed Reader's Digest for a long, long time. I always left it on the back of the commode for bathroom reading. My children would pick it up and read the articles while they were in there. Sometimes I would just happen to leave it open to pages that I thought would be beneficial to them.... like don't do drugs, etc. I can't swear that it helped them but they have turned out to be good people. So I can swear that it didn't hurt.